Going Native in Ireland Part II

It's one thing to find a single product in a store that appropriates Native culture but to find an entire business...

Meet Apache Pizza!

Ireland's most popular Native American themed dine-in and carry-out pizza restaurant!

This popular pizza chain with over 40 locations throughout Ireland left me scratching my head just like the Irish Indian Chief Headdress.

Some of the menu highlights include:

• WIGWAMMER pizza  (cause nothing screams woodlands tribes like double decker pepperoni!)
• CAJUN APACHE pizza (I've never had shrimp gumbo with fry bread, have you?)
• HIAWATHA pizza (which apparently is how they spell Hawaiian in Ireland)
• BACON APACHE pizza (cause everything is better with bacon?)
• GERONIMO pizza (how timely of them)

Here is the full menu and a few screenshots:

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And what themed restaurant is complete without over-the-top decoration (click on the images to enlarge)

 

(but mankind really had to pee and couldn't afford a slice!)

And if you can't make it to the restaurant, just order carryout!

PIZZA BOX (front)

PIZZA BOX (back) featuring:

TEN NATIVE AMERICAN COMMANDMENTS

They even sell licensed merchandise and other novelty gifts such as the Apache Novelty Arrow, Apache Fun Feathers, and Apache Feather Headdress.

"King of your tribe?, then prove it with a feather headress."

Someone care to explain to me what Native Americans and the Apache in particular have to do with pizza?

What's that, absolutely nothing.

Indeed, Native American culture is a pretty odd choice for a pizza chain in the emerald isle, but then again considering the cultural phenomenon that is the "Indian" I'm sadly not surprised by this.

This chain is the epitome of "drawing on Indians" because it is so completely detached from real Native culture and instead dives head first into the stereotypical soup of the "Indian".

It has all the best known elements: a chief head with war bonnet, Hiawatha, Geronimo, a special Indian connection to the natural and spiritual world (though I personally prefer my Native wisdom from tribal elders, not from the back of pizza boxes).

I'm assuming the founders of Apache Pizza were enchanted with the stereotypical Indian of American frontier lore and decided it would make a great memorable pizza mascot.  Thus was born "Big Chief" (he's named in one of the radio adverts) and Apache Pizza!

I was originally going to "go easy" on this company and simply decry it for its clear stereotypes of Native Americans but then I heard the radio adverts.

 Apache- Wife

Apache Pizza is officially racist.  How else can you describe such an ugly stereotype as the tonto-speaking gruff-voiced Indian named Big Chief who literally says HOW every other word?!!!

Stuff like this is supposed to be a thing of the past but I suppose when you take centuries of ugly stereotypes and then move across the ocean to a place far removed from real Native people, this stuff does happen.  Sad.


Outraged?

Let em know:

http://www.apache.ie/customer_feedback.htm


For more European examples check out:

Glastonbury "Indians"

The Dudesons: A Retrospective

Going Native in Ireland Part I


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Going Native in Ireland Part I

I recently spent some time in Western Europe backpacking through several countries including that beautiful green emerald isle of the north known as Ireland.

If you have never been to Western Europe, and Ireland in particular, you must first understand that many of these places thrive on tourism.  Huge segments of the Irish, Spanish, French, and Italian economies depend on the billions of tourist dollars brought in every year.

And what vacation is complete without a few souvenirs!

Carroll's Irish Gift Stores is a huge chain of souvenir shops strung out along the main tourist thoroughfares in downtown Dublin.  They sell everything from Leprechaun key chains to Guinness slippers to "Kiss me, I'm Irish!" T-shirts.  If it can be made green, white, and orange, it will be sold at Carroll's.

I thought I had seen it all when my eyes fell upon the most mind-boggling souvenir imaginable!

The Irish Indian Chief Head Dress

"Everyone's an Indian on St. Patrick's Day!"

Oh, and if you can't make it to Ireland anytime soon, you can just pick one up online!

I suppose this is no worse than the typical Indian costumes you see around Halloween but when you take it out of the context of Halloween, it seems even weirder!  And when you consider that donning this headdress means you are appropriating one culture to celebrate another, that just blows my mind!

So does this finally prove that the Indian Headdress/War Bonnet has moved beyond mere Indian dress up and instead is a broader fad?  Do people don the Irish “Indian Chief Hat” not to become an Indian but rather show Irish pride in a unique and “fashionable” way?

Others may say yes, but I say no. You can never fully divulge the associations with American Indians. The thing is clearly supposed to be a send-up of Plains Indian War Bonnets.  (Look at the name!)

Decades of western media stereotypes have taught Americans and Irishmen alike that the headdress wearing Plains Indian is the ultimate Indian.  To wear any other Native head covering would simply be second rate!  Even when rooting on Irish teams, people want that universally recognized "fierce" look of the Plains warrior with headdress and war paint.

So who exactly would ever buy the headdress and why?  My money goes on those young hipster types such as the Glastonbury “Indians.”  The types who sport nostalgic clothing in an effort to look hip/ironic but instead look like they're stuck in some multi-dimensional multi-cultural time warp.

Just check out the grinning fools on the packaging!

 

...cause it just wouldn't be complete without side pieces.

In the end, this is just another fine example of drawing on Indians.  And if you think this Irish Headdress is silly, just wait till Part II!


For more info, check out these earlier posts:

Tribal Chic: Native Appropriation Appropriation?

Hipster Indians

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